Tuesday, May 20, 2008

MySpace Hoax

How would you feel if somebody tells you that the world would be a better place without you? Would you get upset? Would you get mad at the person? Or would you kill yourself to satisfy him or her?

Last Friday, I got the chance to watch TV alone and had full control of the remote.. (harhar).. I was changing and browsing channels when something caught my attention. It was CNN's report about a young girl who committed suicide over an online hoax. Is this not interesting? I focused and listened very well to the news because I thought it was.

The story is about Megan Meiers, a thirteen-year-old girl who suffered depression and attention deficit. Megan thought that she made a new friend in cyberspace when Josh Evans who claimed to be sixteen-year-old contacted her on MySpace. "Josh" told her he thinks Megan is attractive and so they began exchanging messages online. Their online friendship lasted over a month and Megan's family started to notice that she was becoming more cheerful and described her as having had her "spirits lifted".

After over a month of exchanging messages, Josh abruptly ended their friendship telling Megan he heard that she was cruel, saying "I don't think I want to be friends with you because I heard that you are not very nice to your friends." Josh also sent Megan other troubling messages, shared Megan's messages to others and posted bulletins about her.

Megan got so depressed about this (who wouldn't?) and told her mom about the hurtful messages Josh sent her and went upstairs to her messages afterwards. She was found twenty minutes later, hanging by the neck in a closet. Despite attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead the following day.

Megan's family later learned that Josh never actually existed. The last message Josh sent Megan? "The world would be a better place without you."

It really is a sad story. What's sadder is, the person behind the MySpace account, behind the Josh Evans identity is a mom who just laughed about it and told reporters that the whole hoax was a "joke"..

15 Comments:

Jojo said...

Never trust somebody on the internet. Suicides happened a lot because teens "fall in love" to somebody who never existed.

Zeee said...

that's downright cruel!!!!

wootie said...

what that fake josh evans did was inhumane. i hope that she will forever find guilt in her heart with what she has done. as for parents, they should guide their kids well with internet usage. thanks.this post is helpful for me. i can share this to my friends who have the same concern.

Anonymous said...

Oh.My.Gawd.

That cruel mom ought to be crucified.

Santa editorial said...

this world is not only filled with beautiful things and feelings in us - its people who are also unique in various ways especially in reacting to every situation or feeling... that is while we have brave and determined people --- some of us are simply powerless and helpless imbued with nothing but human limitations.

Laura Brown said...

I heard something about that too. I was wondering if it was true or not.

Anonymous said...

Is the character behind "Josh" gonna be punished?

There is another legal case in US going on about violent teenagers who had an argument over at myspace and decided to take things "personally".

Six teenagers beat the living lights out of one teenager who according to the six kids, was spreading gossip about them. All teenagers are myspace users.

Tsk. Tsk.

Princess Vien said...

u're tagged..

http://www.yourvmodel.com/2008/05/friends-around-world.html

Baby O. said...

that's cruel, i think it's necessary now to give teenages some "cyberworld education and ethics" so they're not easily believe things on the net.

Jean Chia aka Ms.Yummy~licious said...

omg! that's a sad story!

Jackie said...

I heard about this on the news. And I have been intending to stop by and comment since seeing it.

Wow what a shame. My daughter absolutely monitors all activety with our grandsons while they are on the internet.

They are not allowed to have any MySpace accounts or anything else. But, gee whiz I know they are exposed when they visit their friends.

It does worry me. This is truly one the tragic downsides to the internet.

Thanks for the share. So sorry I haven't posted before. But, I am currently traveling cross country in a big truck with my hubby.

Blogging is alomost impossible. But, I too am a Red Drop and I have been desperately trying to keep up with visiting and starting to get to know everyone.

LOL...Marzie tagged me with 3 memes over the week-end and Rozella tagged me also.

LOL....I did all four today.

I hope you have a gr8 week!!:-)

Big Eyed Gal said...

The mom posing as Josh Evans should undergo a Psych test!!!!

Anonymous said...

personally, "josh" is not at pure fault here. the girl's family may have had also some contribution to what happened to the girl. and, from an objective point of view, the girl has had some fault as well. why trust someone that quick when you've only met that person through a computer monitor? common sense.. but i guess common sense isn't that common anymore these days..

look at it, she has attention deficit disorder. perhaps her family wasn't giving her the attention she hankers for. maybe that's why she became so intimate with her online friend because it's through this online friend that she got the attention she desired from those people who are actually with her. another point, it's the instinctive duty of her family to make her aware of what she needs to know, or what they presume she needs to know.

as for "josh", that person needs to go see a shrink. such a retarded bully.

Lydia said...

I've heard of this.. And it really pisses me off. This just shows how little humans care for each other. I, too, am depressed, and I can't tell you how often I wish that someone would care about me. People know this; yet, they refuse to care.

kc said...

wow..this is the first time i have read or heard about this. Its so sad and scary to know these things happen.

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